2013 World Team Trophy

Day 3
-
Team USA Cruises to
Gold at ISU World Team Trophy

by Tatjana Flade

Quotable

Ladies Free

Gracie Gold

(on personal best) It’s a great way to end the season. I’m really
happy with it. Experience was important this year. Every competition
from the very beginning to worlds to World Team Trophy, I’ve gotten
better. It’s just experience on the senior level that’s helped me
get my season’s best at almost every competition.

(on a year out from 2014 Olympics) I need to work on choreography
and have more intricate programs. I also need to work on doing the
same thing at every competition with less up and downs. Just ups –
good performances for next year.

Ashley Wagner

(on the free skate) I’m ecstatic. I’m tired. It’s been a long
season. But season’s best at the last competition of the year, I
can’t be happier. Even with the hair mishap, it was a fun program
for me more than anything else.

(on triple-triple going into 2014 Olympic season) I have no excuses
on the triple-triple, it needs to be there.

(on World Team Trophy captain) I was so honored to be elected team
captain of this team, which includes a lot of people I really grew
up with, with the exception of Gracie because she’s new on the
scene. It’s one big family. To be here at the end of the season,
having fun and competing well is a great experience. To be team
captain, I was very honored.

(on U.S. ladies on world scene) We’re here and we’re ready to fight.
We’ve been missing that for a couple of season. Sochi is anyone’s
game but we are in the mix and that’s what I’m proud to say.

Pairs Free

Marissa Castelli and Simon Shnapir

(on free skate) Castelli – It was a great program. It’s our first
time putting out the quad Salchow. I went for it, it’s been good in
practice. We are happy with how we skated overall.

(on postseason) Shnapir – We are going to take a couple weeks to
relax. We will reconvene, get back into it and get our programs in
May. It’s a quick turnaround. We’re ready for it though.

(on World Team Trophy) Castelli – The week has been great. I never
expected it to be this fun. It’s such an awesome team experience. To
support everyone in the competition, it was great to support our
teammates and help rally them to skate great. It’s a fun way to end
the season.

Shnapir – This is a unique experience competing as a team. It’s good
for all of us and a great opportunity to do our programs one more
time and have fun. I think we are all really enjoying ourselves.

Ashley Wagner, Team Captain

I couldn’t be more proud of Team USA. Everyone went out and skated
with their hearts and really pulled it together during a difficult
time. It’s not easy to compete at the end of the season and a few
weeks after Worlds. But here we are and everyone skated so well. I’m
very proud.

(12 April 2013) Team USA cruised to the
gold on the final day of the ISU World Team Trophy in Figure Skating
2013 Saturday in Tokyo, Japan. The Americans won comfortably with 57
points ahead of Team Canada (51 points) and Team Japan (39 points).
It was the second victory at the event for Team USA. They had won
the inaugural World Team Trophy in 2009. Team Japan won the second
edition in 2012.

The World Team Trophy was again a
popular event with the Yoyogi National Stadium filled to its
capacity of 8 500 people every day. Although many skaters were tired
from the season, quite a few achieved a new seasons best score and
finished the pre-Olympic year on a high note.
Team France received the “Team
Spirit Award”.

Volosozhar & Trankov take Pairs

World Champions Tatiana
Volosozhar & Maxim Trankov won the Pairs event with almost 20 points
to spare. As expected, they were Russia’s top scoring team members.
It was special to them to perform their program to “Violin Muse” in Tokyo
as it is dedicated to the earthquake and tsunami disaster in 2011.
The Russians opened with their big triple
twist but then Volosozhar crashed on the side by side triple Salchow.
The team recovered to nail the triple toe-double toe combination as
well as a high throw triple loop and Salchow. They picked up a level
four for four elements, but the somewhat shaky last hand-to-hip lift
garnered only a level one. The European Champions collected 136.06
points which added up to 210.47 points overall.
“It was so hard to push
through, but we are happy to finish our season with good emotions”,
Tatiana commented. “We were very tired and it
was a long season for us, because we started early with the first
competition. Skating
today was hard, because our single skater (Konstantin Menshov) had a
bad injury and withdrew and we lost our chances to be on the podium.
We tried to find some motivation for skating
and we tried to skate for the audience”, Trankov explained.

Duhamel & Radford completed a
triple twist and strong throws, lifts and spins in their routine to
“Angel”, but Duhamel fell on the side by side triple Lutz (under-rotated)
and later singled the Salchow-toe combo. The Canadians remained in
second place at 191.15 points.
"There was some mistakes, but the way that we
skated, the way we felt in the middle of the program, we were both
very aware and relaxed at the same time. I think we both had a lot
of energy at the end and combine that feeling with a clean skate and
I think that would be what we’re aiming for next year”, Radford
noted.

Cheng Peng & Hao Zhang of China pulled up one spot to fourth with 174.40
points. Their Flamenco
program was highlighted by a quadruple twist and big throw triple
loop, but Peng missed the double Axel. The Chinese pair first was
ranked fifth but the result was changed. The Technical Panel changed
the original call of the pair combination spin from no level to
level three after a careful review.

Vanessa James & Morgan Cipres of
France made no major error but some elements in their Pearl Harbour
free program were shaky and they dropped to fourth (174.31 points).
Marissa Castelli & Simon Shnapir (USA) finished fifth. They attempted
a throw quadruple Salchow but she fell (172.30 points).
“It’s our first time putting out the quad Salchow. I went for it, it’s been
good in practice. We are happy with how we skated overall”, Castelli
pointed out.

Akiko Suzuki wins Ladies event

Akiko Suzuki of Japan won the Ladies event like she had last year
while USA’s Ashley Wagner and Gracie Gold finished second and third.

Suzuki was second in the short. One more time she excited the crowd with
her beautiful program to “L’Oiseau”. It was a gutsy performance,
because she had to fight for almost every jump, but she hung on to
them. The program featured a triple flip-double toe-double loop, a
double Axel-triple toe, five other triples and level-four footwork
and spins. Suzuki picked up a seasons best score of 133.02 points
and racked up 199.58 points overall.
”I was happy I was able to skate like this at the end of the season.
This performance really came from my heart only. Because I was
skating this program for the last time, I didn’t care if I would
faint in the choreo-step or not, but I just put all my energy into
the program”, the 2012 World bronze medalist said. ”This season had
a lot of ups and downs and it was a learning experience. I wasn’t
sure if I continue until Sochi, but because of how this season went
I decided to continue”, she revealed.

Ashley Wagner turned in a clean peformance to ”Bacchanale” from ”Samson
and Dalilah” but didn’t go for a triple-triple or double Axel-triple
toe combo. She landed six triple jumps and achieved a seasons best
like Suzuki with 128.83 points. Overall she scored 188.60 points.
Wagner didn’t let herself distract even by a hairpin coming off.
“I’m ecstatic. I’m tired. It’s been a long season. But season’s best at
the last competition of the year, I can’t be happier. Even with the
hair mishap, it was a fun program for me more than anything else”,
she said. “I have no excuses on the triple-triple, it needs to be
there”, she added.

Gold had a triple Lutz-triple toe and a double Axel-triple toe in her
“Life is Beautiful” program.
Her only error came when she doubled the last jump, a Salchow. Gold earned
127.05 points, a seasons best, and had 188.03 points overall. “It’s
a great way to end the season. I’m really happy with it. Experience
was important this year. Every competition from the very beginning
to worlds to World Team Trophy, I’ve gotten better. It’s just
experience on the senior level that’s helped me get my season’s best
at almost every competition”, the teenager shared.

Adelina Sotnikova of Russia underrotated the triple Lutz-triple toe and
the double Axel-triple toe combination and fell on a triple flip to
drop from first to fourth at 183.10 points.
“I wasn’t nervous, I was confident and absolutely calm. Apparently
something happened to me. I need to find out what was wrong”, the
16-year-old commented. “I am not pleased with this performance. It
wasn’t my worst performance, but I could have done a lot better in
the free skating.”

Mao Asada remained in fifth place (177.36 points). She doubled her planned
triple Axel and stumbled out of it and also under-rotated the triple
flip-triple loop combination, the triple Salchow and the second
triple flip.

China’s Zijun Li had a much stronger performance than in the short
program. She reeled off
five triples, only the triple loop was under-rotated. Li moved up
from 9th to 6th (171.50 points).

Kaetlyn Osmond of Canada placed 7th.
She produced four triple jumps and two
level-four spins, but took a hard fall on the double Axel-triple
toe. “I was really happy with how my skate went. Just knowing how
well this season went and to end it this way I’m really happy with
it. I lost a little bit confidence going into that
jump (double Axel-triple toe),
and I think with that I didn’t get the right take off and it
just doesn’t end well.” The Canadian
Champion enjoyed the team event. “I liked it a lot. It feels good
knowing that you are not out there by yourself. You have a big team
behind you and we’re always acting goofy and having fun. It takes a
lot of the pressure off the competition and makes it a lot more
enjoyable.”